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Apple has unveiled the new 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display. As the name suggests, the new iMac has a 5K display — but otherwise, it keeps the same form factor as last year’s iMac (it’s still just 5mm thick at the edge). It is priced at just $2,500, and it ships today. Boom.

At 5K — 5120×2800 — Apple says this is the world’s highest resolution display (14.7 million pixels, in case you were wondering). It has seven times more pixels than your 1080p TV or desktop monitor. To get up to 5K, while retaining good image quality, Apple says it had to use “Oxide TFT” technology. I think Apple is referring to IGZO, but I’m not sure. (Apple doesn’t actually make LCD panels; it’s probably an LG or Sharp panel.)

Beyond the display, there’s a 3.5GHz Core i5 Haswell CPU inside (upgradable to Core i7), and the Radeon R9 M290X GPU (upgradable to the M295X). We thought it would be one of Nvidia’s very power efficient Maxwell-based 900M-series GPUs, but for some reason AMD was chosen.

Meh. I can appreciate the innovation in such a product though. It’s amazing that they can put this together! And it’s so pretty!

Zunalter

One thing you have to hand Apple, their timing is impeccable. To announce all of these product refreshes and have them ready to ship almost immediately, is a great feat.

shm224

@zunalter:disqus : just like their Apple watch.

Zunalter

Fair, but in the case of that watch, they need that extra time to come up with reasons why anyone would want one.

shm224

@zunalter:disqus : LOL, I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with Apple Watch’s engineering / technical difficulties with the short battery life or OLED display. Apple is so perfect and original that they never could do any wrong. LOL

Zunalter

Agreed :P

Nig Nog

that graphic showing 1920×1080 on the monitor is amazing

CWeb

I have a 4k monitor at 39″, I don’t think a 5k 27″ would be very usable unless the magnification is high.

VirtualMark

Yes you can adjust the scaling to taste.

Charles Walker

Exactly, it better have some uber scaling capabilities.

Seandroid

If you’ve used one of their Macbook Pro with Retina Displays, you realize how they do it. Applications written to take advantage of retina displays have 2x assets and are otherwise scaled.

Mman

What’s de screen refresh rate of this monster? I guess it’s not good for gaming or whatever.

Donnie Creene

4k gaming is still a year away

Beric

What? 4K gaming is here now. It’s expensive, but it’s here.

Antoine de Champlain

Nope, he’s right its a year away, even with two 980 you get 40FPS when playing at 4K this is no yet reasonable.. when you game you want at least 60fps. Yes some games run more than 60FPS with two 980 but those are also not the most demanding game.

spoffle

Nope. It’s not 40FPS. You need to give context, otherwise your statement doesn’t mean much.
UHD being viable is completely down to the games you play. Not everyone plays the all the latest extremely demanding games.

I love Apple’s OS, now… I’ve been using Windows for the past few years, but OSX is so much better and more sophisticated. It’s definitely worth buying a Mac if you’re not going to be gaming. I want this. But I need a lot more money first!

I’m actually contemplating the same thing (but Windows 10, not Windows 7). I just don’t have space on my desk though, I think.

Quenepas

There are better options without the crappy MacOS and inability to upgrade. Anyone who drops $2500 on this is literally too stupid to insult

Lennon

People like you are absolutely ridiculous, you think your opinions and what you like and don’t are the rule and the absolute rule and everyone else that doesn’t do what you do and like what you like or agree with what you agree is either inferior, less worthy or stupid? seriously, you’re that insecure?

Quenepas

moron

John

Does your rant also apply to your comment?

Charles Kelly

Does anyone really think that they’re going to be seeing a big difference in picture quality between 5k (or even a 4k for that matter) and 1080p on a 27-inch display? If they do, then I would love to borrow their eyes. The only way you’re really going to see a big difference between 4k or 5k and 1080p is on a much larger screen, at least 40 inches and up, just like you can’t see much of a difference between 1080p and 720p until you go beyond 32 inches.

R.R.

well people claim to be able to see the difference between 400ppi and 250ppi on mobile phones, sure they can see the difference right?

dan

I don’t think it’s just about image quality. From what I understand, and as long as scaling works well, these super high resolutions are pretty great for productivity as you get loads of screen real estate which would allow you to have a few applications open at once running in a window equivalent to 1080p fullscreen, for example. (Though do correct me if I’m wrong.)

Octo

How? You are still limited to 27″ so if you scale up your UI to be able to see anything, the only thing you are gonna get is smaller pixels. 27″ is borderline too small for 4k imo, At least if you are after real estate. 32″ would be more like it.

I’m currently running 2×24″ at 1920×1200, I’d love to have double that real estate, but I don’t feel I need much better ppi.

CJ

40″ and up within 5′. You are much closer than that when using a desktop, so….

Lorfa

It’s 5120×2880 (16:9), not 5120×2800 (64:35)

james johnson

Can almost guarantee this is a TN panel. Way too cheap to be IPS at that price.

What?

Pretty sure you’re wrong. Apple usually use the same parts as Dell monitors. Considering Dell is not using TN…

grand_puba

It’s IPS – look at their website

arcwindz

r9 m290x… i don’t know whether it’s because of the 5k but this is very expensive… i can get a 29 inch 4k monitor and a decent dual GPU, i7 system for $2500

What?

There is a huge difference between a 4k monitor and a high quality IPS 5k monitor for photo/video editing. This is on the high end of monitors. The same monitor that probably uses the same exact parts by Dell is $2.5k. Ironically, Apple gave you a whole computer. Dell will only give you the monitor. This is actually cheap.

arcwindz

Hmm, yup, you are actually right, the IPS panel will come with pricier tag, It’s a shame it comes in 27 inch size, not 30 inch above.
I wonder how much it will cost for the upgraded variant, for professional work i don’t think the spec listed are good enough when we are ready to spend that much for 4k editing.

shatner

Why do you need a 30 inch monitor? If you want to watch movies, buy a 65 inch TV instead.

arcwindz

for multitasking of course lol, you don’t buy a 4k monitor and use it only for 1 screen, that’s why it’s mentioned in the article how we can have more working space while editing 4k in native resolution. And small screen will only hinder that. Sure you can work on 60 inch 4k tv, but imagine the space taken by that in an office, it’s humongous!

Quenepas

No it’s not. It’s a rip off. The specs are pathetic for $2500.

Lennon

get me a 5K IPS monitor and a PC for less than $2500

Quenepas

I’ll get you one that you can actually do something on…not just talk about with your d-bag hipster friends at starbucks as you talk about the latest plaid shirts.

And it wont have 8 gigs of ram…LOL

shatner

Apple started the big screen trend with the original iPhone ( it was gigantic at the time). Bigger is better!

Charles Ward

Dell released the 5k monitor (same LG display panel) 1 month ago. Not sure how apple claims the first and highest when Dell beat them to the punch.